Militia Leader in Lebanon Vows To Hunt Guerrillas in U.N. Zone

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MERJ 'UYUN, Lebanon, July 27 — The commander of the Israeli‐backed Christian militia forces in southern Lebanon, Maj. Sand Haddad, said today that his units would no longer treat areas guarded by United Nations forces as off‐limits. He said he would pursue fleeing Palestinian terrorists across United Nations lines and attack any United Nations soldiers who tried to intervene.

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Speaking in an interview at his fortified headquarters, the Lebanese major, who commands about 2,000 Moslem and Christian soldiers along the Israeli border, expressed dismay over what he called the inability of the United Nations to police the zone and what he regards as a lack of American support for suppressing terrorism in the region.

Washington has been critical of Israeli air, artillery and ground attacks against what Israel terms terrorist bases inside Lebanon, and Major Haddad said: “The Americans are putting too much pressure on Israel not to deliver us one American shell for our guns, or any American equipment for our soldiers.”

Sanctuary for Terrorists

He charged that terrorists, operating in United Nations‐supervised territory between the Litani River on the north and a strip of land his forces control in the south, use the United Nations areas as a kind of sanctuary. “They make, almost every night, some attacks against our positions and against our villages,” he said. “We follow them, they run away toward the United Nations and they have the cover of the United Nations.”

“Now I am not going to wait for the P.L.O. to come to me,” Major Haddad added in halting English. “I have to fend myself, I have to defend this pbor population. We are always in the situation of waiting for them to come to Us. They come, they attack and they run away to inside United Nations lines.

“From now on I am going to folk& them inside U.N. lines, because the U.N. is doing nothing to them. Once they are inside, they stand in our way, they stop us. Now I will follow them with everything, and if the U.N. should try to stop me I am going to treat them like P.L.O. I have warned them many times.”

U.N. Denies Aiding Raiders

In response, a United Nations spokesman in Jerusalem, Hugo Rocha, denied any deliberate acquiescence by the United Nations peacekeeping forces in Lebanon to terrorists seeking to infiltrate into Israel.

“It has always made a determined, effort to stop infiltration,” he said of the seven‐nation force. “That the Palestinians infiltrate is a fact of life. There are terrorists inside Israel itself, and you cannot say that they are being protected by Israeli troops or police.”

James Holger, political adviser to the United Nations force in Lebanon, said the Haddad order for pursuit of terrorists would increase tension. A squad of the major's soldiers entered the Irish battalion's area June 21, he said, and tried to establish a checkpoint at the town of Beit Yahun, refusing Irish orders to leave.

“This is a new and very disturbing development,” Mr. Holger said. “We cannot do what a military force would do under normal circumstances, which is fire at them. We are trying to bring peace and security to the area, and the methods that we use are first and foremost negotiation.”

Major Haddad and the Israeli Government have charged that such negotiation with the Palestinians is tantamount to permission for them to operate.

The United Nations force, which now consists of units from Nepal, Senegal, Norway, Nigeria, Fiji, Ireland and the Netherlands, with each country responsible for a separate area, was stationed in Lebanon about a year ago after an Israeli sweep to the Litani River, which Major Haddad said cleared out the terrorists. Only the Nepalese have managed to keep their region clear, he said.

The issue is critical to Israel, whose civilian population in the north is within rocket and artillery range of any Palestinian terrorists who manage to operate in United Nations‐supervised areas. With Israeli arms and logistics support, Major. Haddad has taken control of zone ranging in depth from two to six miles, south of the United Nations areas and running the length of the border. The population of 75,000 to 1000 is mostly Moslem.

Today, in an underground room behind walls of sandbags, Major Haddad wore white pajamas and smoked Ameritan cigarettes while receiving well‐wishers, many of them Moslems, who were paying respectful calls on the occasion of his re lease from a hospital in Haifa. Ile hadtecome overtired and needed a rest and checkup, he said.

The New York Times/ Micha Bar Am

Maj. Saad Haddad, chief of the Israeli‐supported Christian militia in southern Lebanon, receiving flowers yesterday from well‐wisher in Merl ‘Uyun. Major Haddad had just returned from a checkup at a hospital in Israel;

A version of this archives appears in print on July 28, 1979, on Page 3 of the New York edition with the headline: Militia Leader in Lebanon Vows To Hunt Guerrillas in U.N. Zone. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe